Germany . . . . Wow! Where has the time gone?

We spent 3 beautiful days in Germany, returned about 10:00 p.m. on Thursday and left 7:00 a.m. on Friday for York and beyond. What a fabulous time we are having. Keeping up this blog has not been the easiest thing to do. We only have Internet access when we are had my Sister's house. We are staying around town the next two days before flying back to the U.S. so we are in hopes of adding some pictures and info about the journey.
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Now some "Show and Tell : GERMANY -

Left Home base in Brandon England (Kenui & Donna's house) about 5 AM for a 7:20 flight out of Stan stead England at 7:20 AM on "RYANAIR" (can't get away from the kid) ! Arrived Germany's Frankfurt- ???? airport 9 AM (an outlying airport, Not Frankfurt as we thought). There was a long customs line stretching from outside the building. This place was REALLY Different ! No One is speaking English anymore ! . . . it hit me, "wholly smokes we're really in a foreign land. Once through customs, there were familiar sights that almost take all the fun away, American car rental agencies. National and Alamo. OK now it was like going to the deep dark jungle of South America where only animals and savage head hunters reside, only to find a Circle-K store in a clearing . . . . anyway : National Car Rental Agent spoke fluent German with a stiff accent. He set us up with a Black "Opal" Station Wagon, Diesel of course. We piled in and hit the road to make time and, find a place to eat. Dena wanted to pilot us around since she once lived in Germany. She found the autobahn and sped us to Hannau across the beautiful countryside at Mock speeds! By 1:30 PM breakfast was long gone and the plastic dash board was looking pretty tasty. We found something that looked like a restaurant near a Castle / Museum and had some great German food. Young Kenui and I had Jagerschitzel, Dena had salad and Donna a soup. Not to be outdone, Heidi had some foreign food . . . pepperoni pizza.

Not far was (phonetic for now, will correct sp later) the Philip Shrew Museum. Wanted to go inside but, there was a wedding being held there. If there were signs saying a wedding was going on, we couldn't read them. So we opted for a few photo's outside before continuing on to our hotel in Herrenburg Germany. Dena Really wanted to spend time to find the place where she and her kids once lived and frequented. Once again she sacrificed self interest to get the group to the hotel about an hour away since it was already late. We arrived and found the hotel Donna secured for us, high on a hill with an awesome view of the town and valley below : Still hard to believe the immense natural beauty that is everyday stuff for some people (English, Irish and, Germans). Here's some pic's of the Kaiser Hotel and the town below :

Some in Room dinner items from the hotel restaurant (above). Then a good (misnomer) German breakfast (below) : Brochen rolls, various cheeses including Blue-cheese, hard boiled egg, Salmon, Liverwurst and various cold-cuts . . . . YUM ! ! ! . . . . and thankfully, Coffee to dissolve it and wash it down with. Now off to town center in the small town of Herrenburg. Did I mention Germany and every detail related to the word is impeccably CLEAN ! Sterile may better describe it.

We visited the church above the town center shown here and took some pictures from there as well. All the churches in Europe are insanely ornate.

NOW . . . . . . OFF to Hanau , . . . .

Went to shopping area where the Heidelberg Castle can be seen over roof-tops (below, left).

Here is the castle as we saw it and, the town below. The picture of us on stairs (below) inside the castle is next to a very large wine cask about two stories high! Too many pictures to show

Now for the bad News ! It's time to hit the road and get back to England. Turned out to be a big problem. It was 3:30 so we're half an hour late to start. Flight out is 6:10 PM and we're told it's an hour drive to the airport. There is no autobahn but, there were many, many, many many, many, Many ! ! ! . . . . construction zones on the way back. Long story shortened, we finally got there, Dena let us all off at the door. We had 10 minutes to take-off. They barely let us go through as Dena was trying to find the Car Return : She was on a separate ticket, rest of our plane tickets were clustered . . . ie: if one doesn't make it then no one goes (weird rule but, foreign country's airline rule). After Security Inspection AND Customs . . . . We discover the plane was running late. Dena comes running toward us in tears with Donna who went back to get her. They didn't want to let her in even though the plane wasn't even there yet. A very close call that took the finish off that day. Life was once again good when back in England. Thankfully Dena and Donna are very good in dealing with foreign people and situations. We laughed in the end but wow, that was too close.